The compound is a synthetic cannabinoid, made in a lab to resemble
marijuana.

Old rats given the compound performed better in a maze, according to
research by Gary Wenk, PhD, professor of psychology and neuroscience at Ohio
State University, and others.

What about people? "Now, I don't know, because I'm just a rat guy,
whether this is going to work that well in humans," Wenk tells WebMD.
"But it looks like it will, because of what we've seen with other drugs in
other diseases."

The marijuana-like drug "won't cure the disease, but what it might do is
stop the processes that are involved in making the disease worsen," Wenk
says. "I think that's the most exciting aspect."

"What may matter is that we can tell people that we might be able to
step in, stop the inflammation, and they might die of old age before the
inflammation has a chance to rebuild itself, which we believe takes many
decades," Wenk says.

"That's the main hope, I think," he says.

Reducing Brain Inflammation

Wenk's team tested the synthetic cannabinoid to curb brain inflammation in
rats.

"We know that brain inflammation at a low level plays a role in lots of
diseases" including Alzheimer's, Wenk explains.

"Now inflammation in all these conditions doesn't cause the
disorder," he says. But, "it has consequences."

"In fact, the inflammation appears long before plaques and tangles and
memory impairment," Wenk says, referring to the plaques and tangles seen in
the brains of people who die with Alzheimer's disease.